{"id":45672,"date":"2021-07-22T16:22:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-22T22:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/new-mexico-seeks-restoration-ideas-after-2015-mine-spill\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:26:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:26:30","slug":"new-mexico-seeks-restoration-ideas-after-2015-mine-spill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/new-mexico-seeks-restoration-ideas-after-2015-mine-spill\/","title":{"rendered":"New Mexico seeks restoration ideas after 2015 mine spill"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"In
In 2015, kayakers Dan Steaves, Eric Parker and David Farkas talk with students from a Durango Nature Studies camp about the wastewater from the Gold King Mine spill that turned the Animas River mustard yellow. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file)<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

SANTA FE, N.M. \u2013 New Mexico officials are looking for ideas for restoration projects to repair damage caused by a 2015 spill that fouled rivers in three western states with a bright-yellow plume of arsenic, lead and other heavy metals.<\/p>\n

The state Office of the Natural Resources Trustee said Wednesday that the projects would be funded through a proposed $1 million settlement with the defendants \u2013 Sunnyside Gold Corp. and its parent companies.<\/p>\n

The spill released 3 million gallons (11 million liters) of wastewater from the inactive Gold King Mine above Silverton. A crew hired by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency triggered the spill while trying to excavate the mine opening in preparation for a possible cleanup.<\/p>\n

The trustee\u2019s office said the contamination flowed into the Animas and San Juan rivers and adversely affected New Mexico residents, the agricultural and recreational tourism industries, and natural resources along those waterways.<\/p>\n

The state and the defendants in January reached a settlement<\/a> that includes a payment of $1 million by the mining defendants to the trustee to implement natural resource restoration projects. Court approval of the settlement is pending.<\/p>\n

Litigation against other parties \u2013 including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and its contractors \u2013 is ongoing.<\/p>\n

As for the restoration projects, they must benefit surface water, wildlife, agriculture, outdoor recreation or other industries that rely on a healthy river. The deadline for submitting ideas is Aug. 21.<\/p>\n

The trustee\u2019s office plans to select the winning projects and publish a final restoration plan by January.<\/p>\n

\u201cCommunities whose jobs, livelihoods and environment were directly affected by the Gold King Mine release will know best how this funding can be put to good use,\u201d Trustee Maggie Hart Stebbins said in a statement. \u201cWe recognize that this funding will not fully repair or restore all the injuries caused by the Gold King Mine release, but it represents a significant first step toward that goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the spill, the EPA designated the Gold King and 47 other mining sites in the area a Superfund cleanup district. The agency is still reviewing options for a broader cleanup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Projects would be funded through a proposed $1 million settlement with defendants<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45673,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[174,2138,28,138],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-45672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-environmental-cleanup","tag-gold-king-mine","tag-headlines","tag-new-mexico"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45672"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86591,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45672\/revisions\/86591"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45672"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=45672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}